You're Invited

You are invited to “Digital Explorations: Tools, Techniques, and Strategies for the Classroom in the Age of Disinformation, Social Media, and AI,” a professional development workshop open to all K-12 teachers and K-12 education students organized by the KU Area Studies Centers to explore the theme of the Digital Age.

This workshop approaches the digital age in both theory and practice. Educators will learn about a variety of digital tools and their applications in the classroom and will hear from experts from KU who will speak on topics like propaganda and disinformation, social media, and AI in different world regions and how it affects learning and teaching in the US.

When: July 11, 2025 9:00am-4:00pm

Where: KU Edwards Campus, Regnier Hall, Room 165

Guests can park in Lot A off 127th Street.  https://edwardscampus.ku.edu/event-space-campus-map 

Free & All-Inclusive

This is a free workshop made possible by Title VI National Resource Center grant funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Refreshments, snacks, and a complimentary lunch will be provided by the University of Kansas Area Studies Centers.

The Area Studies Centers will provide certificates of completion to those who finish the workshop and need documentation for professionalization points at their institution.

Agenda

8:30am-9:00am Early Bird Meet-and-Greet 

Arrive early to learn about Global and Area Studies events and resources at the University of Kansas and enjoy refreshments, and the opportunity to socialize with colleagues from around the region.

9:00am-9:10am Welcome + Introductions + Overview

9:10am-10:10am Keynote address with Rachel Benson

During the keynote and interactive workshop, attendees will explore how the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can bring relevance, global awareness, and purpose to any content area. Using real classroom examples, we’ll examine how these goals can motivate students and position them as agents of change. Throughout the session, attendees will learn about digital tools that enhance both instructional planning and student-led problem solving, showing how technology can elevate SDG-focused learning. Participants will leave with a concrete, personalized plan for using digital tools to meaningfully integrate the SDGs into their own teaching practice.

10:10am-10:20am Break

10:20am-12:00pm Hear from 2 KU Experts

"Intro to Digital Humanities: Tools for Use in the Classroom" (Dr. James Yékú).

“How I Learned to Disincentivize Overreliance on AI and Use Digital Tools to Enhance Learning and Connection" (Dr. Sean Gullickson).

12:00pm-12:45pm Break for Lunch (lunch provided)

12:45pm-2:10pm Hear from 2 KU Experts

"Russian State-Controlled Media in Wartime and Beyond" (Dr. Rebecca Johnston).

“Scrolling the World: Experiencing the Globe One Post at A Time" (Mego Londeen).

2:10pm-2:20pm Break

2:20pm-3:50pm Workshop facilitated by Rachel Benson

3:50pm-4:00pm Wrap up and post-event survey

General Resources

SchoolAI - offers AI-powered tools to help teachers create lessons and support personalized learning for students in a safe, monitored environment.

SchoolAI demo video - The video shows how SchoolAI helps teachers personalize learning, plan lessons, and boost student engagement using AI tools.

SchoolAI Assistant - AI tools that help educators with tasks like lesson planning, grading, and curriculum support through easy, chat-based interactions.

Educators Technology -practical resources, tools, and tips for integrating technology into the classroom. It features reviews of educational apps, guides on digital teaching strategies, and curated lists of tools to support teaching and learning across different subjects and grade levels.

United Nation Sustainable Development Goals - outlines 17 global objectives aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring peace and prosperity for all by 2030. It provides detailed information on each goal, including targets, progress updates, and resources for action.

The SDG Book Club Catalogue - lists children’s books organized by UN goal, with selections in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, and Arabic.

Sustainable development goals and the language classroom - explains how language teachers can integrate the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals into lessons using strategies like literature, problem-based learning, and art to build global awareness and critical thinking.

SDG Goals with Descriptions - all 17 goals on a print-friendly document.

SDGs and Tech Project Ideas - using tech to engage with the SDGs in the classroom.

Teaching the World  (Title VI National Resource Centers (NRCs) outreach resources)

Teaching the World is a collection of Title VI National Resource Centers (NRCs), which are higher education areas or international studies centers partially funded by the U.S. Department of Education providing resources to educators and students.

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Center for Latin American Studies: Curriculum K-12 ( Univ. of Florida) - Created with the help of K-12 teachers, a compilation of curriculum resources ranging from lesson plans to Latin American business resources.
• Latin American & Iberian Institute – K-12 Educators: Curriculum (Univ. of New Mexico) – A range of curriculum materials and related resources to support teaching about Latin America and Iberia in K-12 classrooms. The materials are relevant across grade levels and subject areas, with many activities serving as interdisciplinary introductions to topics.
• LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies – Digital Collections and Content (Univ. of Texas at Austin Libraries)
  
  • Curriculum - Latin American, U.S. Latinx, and African Diaspora Teaching & Learning Resources
    
    • Exhibits  - Benson Latin American Collection, Maps and Geography
• Online Curricula – K-12 – Stone Center for Latin American Studies (Tulane Univ.)
• Latin American & Caribbean Digital Initiatives (Univ. of Florida Libraries) - This guide provides information for digital resources related to Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Digital Projects, Digital Exhibits, Digital Collections, Digital Humanities Symposium Projects & Resources
• Educator Resources and Lesson Plans – Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (Univ. of Kansas)
• Heritage of the Milpa - short and subtitled UN video on indigenous women and the Mayan milpa. Especially good for students from the Midwest to discuss farming practices and monoculture versus polyculture.
• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: This document is useful for discussing contemporary issues facing indigenous peoples in Latin America, particularly with respect to conflicts over land and resource management.
• The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian has interactive sites on the Inca: water management and road system and engineering offer a good blend of cultural and scientific approaches, fun to explore.
• Atuelis a short “documentary game” in which players spend about 30 minutes exploring the Atuel River Valley in Argentina. While they explore, clips of interviews with local indigenous leaders are played discussing the importance of the river and of water to indigenous cosmovision. Impactful experience. Platform is “pay what you want,” meaning it is accessible for free.
• When Two Worlds Collide: A Battle for Indigenous Amazonian Land– documentary about land rights and resistance in Peru.
• Radio Ambulante -  an award-winning Spanish language podcast that uses long-form audio journalism to tell neglected and under-reported Latin American and Latino stories. Transcripts available that can help with student comprehension. Highly recommended: Tunéame la nave,  which tells the story of Mauricio Hernández of MTV’s Pimp my Ride and provides an interesting perspective on immigration. Also available through NPR.
• Alt.Latino. NPR resource - find music from Latin America.

East Asia

• ArcGIS Online Story Maps - ArcGIS Story Maps is a collaborative, cloud-based platform for using, creating, and sharing maps and data. Story maps combine interactive maps, text, video, images, and other content to tell a story. They provide an engaging, rich way to teach content; foster critical thinking skills, organization, and communication skills; and provide access to resources by authoritative sources. There are several story maps on East Asia in their collection: The Two Koreas, China's Highways, China ‘Ghost Towns, and  On Foot in the Path of the Silk Road .
• AR-NCTA: Resource Guides  - A curated collection of resources designed specifically for educators teaching about East Asia and Asian America. It includes links to primary sources, structured curriculums, comprehensive resource collections, and other classroom materials to enrich your lessons. 
• Asia for Educators(Columbia University) - A resource site for teachers developed by Columbia University's East Asian Curriculum Project (EACP), a national initiative devoted to supporting education on Asia at the secondary and elementary levels. Focusing primarily on China and Japan, the site features teaching units, lesson plans, primary-source readings, resource lists, bibliographies, and more.
• Asia Society - Lesson Plans - Free lesson plans based on rich material resources with short formative activities.
• China Institute – Resources for Educators- China Institute in America offers a variety of print and online resources that educators can use to enhance their teaching of China in the classroom, including the award-winning We All Live in the Forbidden City books.
• Education About Asia  - The premier peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the teaching of Asian Studies. Published by the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), the journal’s mission is to equip educators with the resources necessary to introduce the study of Asia into their curricula.
• Hiroshima Archive  - A pluralistic digital archive using the digital earth to display on it in a multilayered way all the materials gained from such sources as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the Hiroshima Jogakuin Gaines Association, and the Hachioji Hibakusha (A-bomb Survivors) Association.
• International Dunhuang Project  - IDP offers a variety of online resources for teaching about the Silk Road. The site includes a database of close to 500,000 images, as well as curated lesson plans and activities.
• MIT Visualizing Cultures - Visualizing Cultures was launched at MIT in 2002 to explore the potential of the Web for developing innovative image-driven scholarship and learning. The VC mission is to use new technology and hitherto inaccessible visual materials to reconstruct the past as people of the time visualized the world (or imagined it to be).
• Teach Japan- Teach Japan is a new (2016) collaboration between several museums and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership. It allows you to search multiple collections by grade level and resource type.